<Begin Segment 5>

RP: And did you ever know why that your father moved to Hollywood and left that, the Bissell estate?

MS: You know, I don't... I'm just wondering now whether, because I mentioned about Molly? I'm just wondering whether that might have had something to do with it. But it also might have been that, he might have felt that he needed to make more money because now he has a growing family. And, and he probably had saved enough then to start a little business in Hollywood.

RP: What did he do?

MS: He, he built a little flower stand on Los Feliz Boulevard and that was when it was still a, not what it was today.

RP: Can you, can you remember and describe for us what the, the landscape looked like?

MS: Yes, we had, we actually grew some flowers on Los Feliz, and, as did other nurseries. There were a couple of other nurseries I know. And then sold the flowers right there, build a stand. I have a, I have a picture actually from the Los Angeles Times that took the, a picture of our little stand on Los Feliz, with my brother, my little younger brother.

RP: Paul?

MS: Yes, in front. I don't know what it said now, but... And we used to walk to the Los Angeles River and they had, that was before it was paved or... and they had pollywogs that we caught and, yeah.

RP: That was an exciting place.

MS: Yeah.

RP: For a kid.

MS: Yeah. But now it's a lot of apartment houses.

RP: Is there actually a little bit of a river flowing through there at that time?

MS: Periodically, uh-huh. Now that they paved it, the water level changes tremendously, too, but you do have a lot of water if it rains, yes. And...

RP: Now did you get involved at an early age with helping at the flower stand or growing flowers?

MS: Oh, yes.

RP: What did you do?

MS: Well initially, especially on the holidays when we were very busy. And so there would be more customers than people available to help them and so I was between six and, let's see, I moved... I must have been only six or seven. So I would... and they had the prices listed so that it would be fine. And so I would help until they chose something and then I would take it just to my father or my mother or somebody who would wrap it and take the money. Later, of course, I helped more fully.

RP: Did you do any flower arranging later on?

MS: Later on, yes, yes. And, which was fortunate because that helped me get a job later, after evacuation.

RP: Did your father specialize in any specific flowers? I know there was always flowers that were seasonal like Easter lilies and poinsettias and things like that.

MS: Oh, well we... the flowers that we grew of course, whatever would grown, were the ones that were popular. I can remember a lot of sweet peas, apparently they were very popular. And, yes, their stalks, and they were what... but, and that helped too because then you paid only for taking care of them. You didn't pay for buying them.

RP: Corsages? Did you do corsages?

MS: Later, uh-huh, later I did. But, yes.

RP: Did you have a home on the property too there, or did you...

MS: We lived in a little house that was in back. And I think later it was condemned. And there I can remember we still had kerosene lamps, I guess. Because I remember they were lamps that had to be cleaned. The glass had to be cleaned. And, and the old, what is it, oh, the old irons that you had to heat on the stove or whatever it was. [Laughs] And my mother, of course, she washed everything on the washboard at that time. And I really appreciated what she did after I got to Manzanar when we had to wash on the washboard. And I got so tired just washing my own clothes. That's just one person, two sheets, pillowcase, and a few clothes. And here she was doing it for eight people. Oh, that was...

RP: Did you start school there, in Hollywood?

MS: In Hollywood, in Los Feliz. I went to the Los Feliz elementary school right across from [inaudible]. And they taught me to read. Once... and they taught us phonetically. And so I was able to figure out a lot of words. And there was a little library on, I guess that was Vermont. Which was... we walked down Vermont to go to the elementary school. And I can remember as soon as I learned how to read a bit I would go over and I think I read through all the fairy tales and just a lot of books I remember.

RP: Did you have any, you mentioned that you had grown up with very little contact with Japanese?

MS: Oh, that's true. 'Course in the Bissell ranch of course there'd be none and I was born there.

RP: How about, how about Los Feliz?

MS: Now in Hollywood there were. There was Japanese... let's see, there were Japanese florists down, down Los Feliz and then, let's see, I think there were a couple of other Japanese families also living. There were a number of Japanese actually. But unfortunately we moved away in two years.

RP: Oh, you were just there two years?

MS: Yes. And so then we moved to Eagle Rock. And in Eagle Rock there were no Japanese. I think there might, there was probably restriction. And my father was able to rent through an individual so you didn't go through real estate because you would have been turned down.

RP: Right.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.